All you need is love… and a 42″ flatscreen, a new Cadillac Escalade, Pergo wood floors, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, weekends in Vegas, vacations in the Seychelles…

Do you remember theCastle at Kron and Ecclestone Circle? Or perhaps the monstrosity at Angell and Michelson? Or the Joke on Karen Ann Lane? The trend in over-improvement during the bubble is most noticeable in the omnipresence of pergraniteel.

During the bubble, the more you spent, the more you made. People
actually believed that adding common improvements — something anyone
could do to their own taste — would add more value than the
improvement cost. Flippers made money because they were there; breathing was the only prerequisite to success. Skill
and financial acumen had nothing to do with it, as evidenced by the losses they took when they were left holding the bag.

Home improvement and flipping shows became so common, they developed
their own channel. Like moths to a flame, fools flocked to flip houses.
The infamous flops are profiled here.

Today’s featured property is another one where you have to ask yourself, why?

Why did someone take an ordinary house — overpay for it — then proceed to demolish it in favor of something that is vastly over-improved for the area. This makes no sense. If this made sense, we could drive our entire economy on building and rebuilding homes… wait, we tried that once, didn’t we?

This owner buys the property for $640,000 on 4/7/2005. By the time he finished construction, he hit the peak of the housing market. Unfortunately, he did not find a mark(et) for his monster.

Washington Mutual loaned this guy $1,200,000 on 1/12/2007. I imagine there is a fair amount of mortgage equity withdrawal in that number. Then on 8/24/2007 he got a HELOC for $250,000. WTF was WAMU thinking? The builder made his profit.